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There are a true big three in chain steakhouses right now: Texas Roadhouse, Outback, and LongHorn. However, your current favorite may not be offering the same choices or the same prices as the others. While the classic lineup of dishes at an American steakhouse is pretty well established, chain restaurants often play by their own rules, cutting options for efficiency or adding unique menu items to differentiate themselves. So while you can generally expect to find a ribeye cut on the menu at most steakhouse chain restaurants, their full list of steak offerings can differ greatly. And if it’s an abundance of different cuts at the lowest possible price you are after, Texas Roadhouse is the champion.
Looking only at the steak entrees at each restaurant, not including combos, add-ons, or dishes that only differ in toppings, Texas Roadhouse has the most steak dishes, with 11 different options, compared to seven at LongHorn and nine at Outback. And that doesn’t even fully cover how much more choice you have there. Beyond offering the most cuts and preparations, Texas Roadhouse also offers more size options for their steaks. For just one cut, the New York strip, Texas Roadhouse offers an 8-, 12-, and 16-ounce cut, while Outback and LongHorn only offer a 12-ounce option. There’s a lot of overlap in different cuts between the three chains, and the only steak offered by one of the others but not Texas Roadhouse is the T-bone steak available at LongHorn. However, Texas Roadhouse does offer a porterhouse, which is pretty similar to a T-bone, so you aren’t missing much.
Texas Roadhouse offers more steak options at a better price than either LongHorn or Outback
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While it has pretty much all the cuts of steak that the others do, Texas Roadhouse also has several dishes the others don’t. The most unique is the “Roadhouse Churrasco,” which is a flat iron steak, an option not offered at LongHorn or Outback. Texas Roadhouse also offers more thinly cut filet medallions, in addition to the standard filet mignon. For different preps the restaurant’s menu also features kabobs, prime rib, and a loaded chopped steak, which are three dishes also offered by Outback but not LongHorn. No matter what your taste, rest assured, Texas Roadhouse will have an option, whether you want something as simple as sirloin or as fancy as prime rib.
The larger menu selection is all well and good, but it wouldn’t mean anything if people couldn’t afford the steak. Thankfully, Texas Roadhouse’s reputation for affordable steaks is well earned. The restaurant’s prices are consistently equal to or lower than Outback and LongHorn locations in the same region (we checked in Florida since the state’s average dining prices land right in the middle compared to the rest of the country). We only compared cuts and sizes that are available at all three chains (the 20 oz bone-in ribeye, 6 oz filet, 8 oz sirloin, and 12 oz New York strip), and Texas Roadhouse had the cheaper 6 oz filet and 8 oz sirloin and tied with LongHorn for the bone-in ribeye. The only steak that was more expensive at Texas Roadhouse was the 12 oz New York strip, priced at $27.99 against Outback’s at $26.97. You might like the steaks (or other entrees) better at LongHorn or Outback, but if you want a big selection of steak, Texas Roadhouse is the place.
Dining and Cooking